Loss

Hikaru Nakamura

Loss

Magnus Carlsen

Win

Teimour Radjabov

Win

Magnus Carlsen

Loss

Pavel Eljanov

Loss

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Win

Hikaru Nakamura

Levon Aronian is having a pretty good month. Actually, he’s have a pretty good year.

Aronian, an Armenian grandmaster, who has recently risen to No. 3 in the world (along the way becoming only the sixth player to crack the 2,800 rating level), won the World Blitz Championship in Moscow on Thursday.

In the blitz championship — where each player started with three minutes and had two seconds added to their time after each move — Aronian scored 24.5 points in 38 rounds, facing each of the other competitors twice. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan finished only a half point back in second place, while Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the defending champion, was another half point back in third.

Boris Gelfand of Israel and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, who is a noted speed-chess player, tied for fourth with 21.5 points each.

Aronian did not coast to victory. He lost his last two games to Sergey Karjakin of Russia, who tied for sixth, and Peter Svidler, another Russian, who tied for eighth. But Radjabov, who trailed Aronian by 1.5 points with two rounds to play, lost to Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia in the penultimate round, so he could not overtake Aronian.

Carlsen got off to a great start, winning his first four games and seemed to be well on his way to repeating as champion. Though he subsequently lost two games, he was tied for the lead with Aronian at the the end of the first day (Tuesday). But he lost five games on the second day and was unable to recover.

Nakamura had the opposite experience. He lost his first three games, and four of his first five. But he fought his way back into contention before suffering another string of three losses on Thursday, which ended his title hopes. He did manage to beat Aronian in Round 14, however, as seen in the first video below. The second video is Aronian evening the score in Round 33.

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In its 1,500-year history, chess has imbedded itself in the world's culture and vocabulary. Ideas, terms and images from the game have long been used as proxies for intelligence and complexity. But chess is more than a diversion. Thousands worldwide play professionally or earn a living by teaching it to children. The Internet has transformed the game, making it easy for players anywhere to find an opponent day or night. Chess computers, originally developed to test the bounds of artificial intelligence, now play better than grandmasters. This blog will cover tournaments and events, trends and developments. Reader comments and questions will be more than welcome.

With an easy draw in the penultimate round, Hikaru Nakamura preserved his lead, while Viswanathan Anand, the world champion, was lucky to escape with a draw against a 16-year-old grandmaster. Read more…